From Cairns we caught the Greyhound coach down to Townsville, where we jumped on the 20 minute ferry across to Magnetic Island! As we were now on a tighter budget we decided to stay at Magnums on the Island, instead of the more popular BASE hostel. It was fine though; the resort was quiet but had a good pool and was in between two beautiful bays. We didn't come to Magnetic Island to party anyway, so it was an ideal place to more or less do nothing. I did manage to go for a run one morning, but apart from that our exercise consisted of walking two minutes to the beach, chilling, reading and sleeping! We needed it though! Lorna stayed on another day and night and entertained herself by going to the Animal Sanctuary as she was keen to see Crocs and Koalas before she left Australia, where as I decided to head slightly further down the coast to the desolate town of Ayr because I was booked to do the YONGALA Wreck Dive and from here it took only 30 minutes where as the dive companies leaving from 'Maggie' Island took 3 hours each way and the seas aren't particularly calm.So Lorna and I decided to part for the day so it was best for both of us (as she wasn't diving and she would have had nothing to do in Ayr then re-acquaint in Airlie Beach the next night.

The purpose built divers lodge at 'Yongala Dive' was really nice actually. They picked me up the from coach and then we drove 20 minutes to Alva beach where there was a large house converted into two 6 bed dorms room, a cute lounge and kitchen and a normal bathroom, just like you are at 'home'. There was only a couple of others staying there as it's quite quiet at the moment, despite the weather actually being perfect conditions for the diving and boat trip. Some more people arrived first thing in the morning so they ended up being 8 of us going to dive. We were split into two groups of four which one instructor per group. Everyone was really excited because this dive is rated in the Top 10 in the World so we were all keen to get down. It definitely was not cheap but it was worth every single penny. It was the most amazing dive I have done and they weren't lying when they said you see 6 x as much on one dive than you do on the Great Barrier Reef itself. Basically the SS Yongala sunk nearly 100 years ago and over time it has just turned into a magnificent artificial reef, it is literally covered in soft and hard corals of all different colours. All the marine life down there seems to be on steroids...they are massive! I'm talking 2m long Marble Rays, Tawny Nurse Sharks, 2m Groper fish, huge turtles...I have never seen so many fish in my life. Literally thousands. So many you have to sometimes kind of push/swim through the shoals of fish. It was amazing. The boat is 109m long and fell on its side, you can totally make out the entire ship shape but it is mostly covered in marine life now. We saw the old bathrooms, deck, engine rooms and mast. It was pretty spectacular. My only complaint was the dives weren't long enough-especially for me who seems to be a pro on my air and everyone jokes I must be hiding gills somewhere as I come back with over double the amount of air left than everyone else. Though I am seriously tempted to come back in the near future as do a Divemaster Internship with them, where basically I would help out with the running of the business and the hostel in exchange for free food, accommodation and the cost of my entire course including free diving nearly every day!!

We got back to the lodge early afternoon after two dives. We then had a great Aussie BBQ and got to reminisce on our amazing experience, share photos and fill in our log books. Amazing amazing experience!